Stuart’s post is an absolutely superb and comprehensive summary of how a council can easily get started with the nuts and bolts of a Twitter presence – based on his experience at Lichfield District Council.

The only comments I’d add to Stuart’s piece are about how councils can use Twitter – once they’ve got it up and running as a communications channel.

Councils could fall into the trap of setting up Twitter as a broadcast channel – using it to send out mass messages to people that choose to follow the council.

But I think that’s missing the real value of Twitter.

To get the most of Twitter councils need to use the tool to engage in conversations – listening and interacting with residents and other stakeholders in a way that more traditional tools don’t allow to happen.